Category Archive: Lola

Spanishtown (Half Moon Bay)

Way back in late June we took a day trip to Spanishtown which is just outside of Half Moon Bay. We did an internet search of “things to do in Half Moon Bay” and Spanishtown was one thing that people kept talking about so we couldn’t resist the quick detour!

Our little navigator
Gorgeous rose gardens

The main attraction? Dinosaur sculptures off Highway 92…random!





There was a great garden sculpture/fountain store that we enjoyed exploring as well.



It was a nice little day trip in the southern part of the Bay Area that we don’t frequent often.

Game night and doggie play date

On Saturday 6/12 we were invited over to Carleigh & Scott’s place for some food, drinks, games and doggie play time. 🙂

Scott & Lola (Lola would sift through all of Bailey’s toys and pick out her favorite of the moment)

Kevin & Bailey (isn’t that face so sweet??)

The kiddos, begging to be let in

Scrabble! I think Kevin won that round.

Me & Carleigh (and a bottle of Maker’s Mark, gotta love that being front-and-center of this photo, haha)

Road trip down south

On Friday 6/11 Kevin and I had the rare opportunity to spend an entire 24 hours together uninterrupted by work or school! 🙂 Kevin not only had the day off from work and wasn’t in school at the time but it was a furlough day for me so we decided to take advantage of the day and take a road trip (just like old times!)

Instead of going north to Marin County like we always seemed to do in the past, this time we set our sights further south: to Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Pescadero and Half Moon Bay.

Lola has grown by leaps and bounds in terms of her comfort level in the car–no more car sickness and scaredy-dog! She’s up and about sniffing out the window like a normal dog now and she’s now discovered how much she loves being right between us on the armrest

Lola, our favorite co-pilot

Beautiful view off the 9 Highway towards Big Basin

The state park was gorgeous–we loved all of the fresh smells and how quiet it was driving through there. We were a little frustrated, however, by the park once we got there though. On their website it said that dogs were allowed on some trails (some trails) but didn’t distinguish which ones. When we got to the park’s HQ we were surprised to find out that dogs are only allowed on one trail and it’s a paved road! 🙁 Then we found out that parking was $10 and the trail map was $5 (neither of whose prices were on the website, of course) so since we could only go on one sad little trail with Lola we decided to skip the fees and just drive through and enjoy the sights. We’ll be back though (without Lola in tow of course) because it was so beautiful!

After driving through all of funny small towns (Bonny Doon anyone?) we ended up on Highway 1 and drove up the coast towards home. We stopped off at a small beach to do some exploring.

A little video of our rock-climbin’ pup


Lola, the beach bum

Can you tell it was w-i-n-d-y?

Apparently my chin smelled like food, haha

One of the stops off PCH that we knew we wanted to make was to Pescadero that my mom and her boyfriend Steve had visited on their last trip up to SF.


Arcanegli Grocery is a really cute little supermarket that has some of the most amazing breads and spreads.

There wasn’t a ton to do so we just walked up and down the main drag and I took some random photos…

…like of this rusty fire hydrant.

…and of this person’s garage that I was really into, haha.

Our last stop before home was Half Moon Bay which we actually weren’t super impressed with! Maybe it was because we were tired and starving and the restaurant we ate at (Spanishtown Mexican Restaurant) was less-than-stellar (great service but bland food!) I guess we’ll have to give it another shot in the future. 🙂

It was so nice spending some daylight hours with Kevin! Can’t wait for another day like this to come along (hopefully it won’t be too long!)

Tis the season for BBQ’s!

On Saturday 6/5 Kevin got out of work early enough to come home and enjoy a delicious BBQ with me and Lola. On the menu: Korean-style ribs, red quinoa and kale…YUM!

Lola sure enjoyed the BBQ experience (as you can tell by the photos):

Lola: Hmmm…I don’t think Dad’s looking…maybe I can snag a little piece…

Lola: Pleeeeease tell me that piece is for me…?

Lola: Okay, folks, I think that should be enough for you two. I can take care of this tiny piece that’s left on the plate, don’t you worry about that.

The final product = Delicious!

A day with the girls

A few weeks ago me, Lola and Jessie had some fun girl time. We started out at the dog park (one of Lola’s favorites: McKinley Square Park) and as we were leaving the neighborhood me and Jess spotted something off the side of the road and decided to take a closer look. Turns out it was an art installation by one of the local high schools.




We then hung out at our place that night, just goofin’ around and spending some quality time together 🙂

Lola sure loves her Auntie Jessie!

Our latest family portrait: the dog pile edition

Things we’ve been up to…

On Sat. 5/22 Jessie and I were invited to brunch at our friends Carleigh & Scott’s place. It was Lola’s lucky day because she was invited along as well! She and Bailey spent no time getting reacquainted and ran through their apartment the entire time we were there! Thanks so much Carleigh for the amazing brunch!


The next day, Sun. 6/23, was a very sad day indeed…it was the series finale of the tv show LOST! Kevin and I have been watching the show religiously since season 2 (we used to watch it at my mom’s house every week with my mom and our friend Kim and we even got two of my mom’s exchange students hooked on it!) Since living in SF we’ve joined Jessie’s LOST fan group and have really enjoyed our weekly get togethers. Last year we had a dress-up day where everyone came dressed up as their favorite LOST character. I would’ve loved to have come dressed as Desmond as he’s my absolute favorite character, but I didn’t have enough time/money to make it look good. So for that party I dressed up as Ana Lucia who I think I most resemble. So for the series finale Jessie wanted to host another themed dress-up party but didn’t want to repeat the same character theme–so this time it was funeral-themed! Everyone came dressed in their best funeral get-up to mourn the loss of our favorite show. Jessie was extremely cute in her outfit (as always!) and since I didn’t have any cute black clothes, I just wore a simple black top and smeared my mascara and eye liner to make it look like I had been crying!

A photo shoot with Jessie’s cat Mars before the show…


Me and Jess mourning the loss of LOST (that’s mascara around my eyes, no I didn’t get two black eyes!)

Almost the whole group, there were a ton of people there! 11 people total

With Kevin’s new work/school schedule, we don’t get to see each other too often 🙁 He works 5 days a week, generally 6:30-3:30 (including every Saturday and Sunday). Then when he’s in school, he has class from 4:30-10:30 each night Monday through Friday! For a few weeks he’s got a break before his summer class begins, so it’s been really nice having him home at night so we can actually enjoy dinner together. But even with that, it feels like we never have any actual daylight hours to hang out and go places like we used to basically every weekend. Last Mon. 5/24 I went to work in the afternoon so we had an entire morning together, so we took full advantage of it and had a little day trip! We drove out to Mount Davidson which is the highest point in the city of SF and it’s a gorgeous hike.

Lola’s become quite the passenger in the car these days (she’s improved by leaps and bounds since we first got her when she would get carsick every time we got in the car!)

A fallen tree on the hike

On the top of Mt. Davidson there is a HUGE white cross which is on property not owned by the city. I had always figured it was just a religious group’s doing, but the plaque next to it stated that it is there in memory of the 1.5 million people killed during the Armenian genocide.

Kevin’s standing at the bottom of the cross, you can just barely see his head and shoulders…now you see how freaking HUGE it is??

It was a great, easy hike on a beautiful crisp morning

Family portrait

Lola learns how to "roll over"

Thought I’d try a video blog post this time!

Don’t mind the big dork in the film, yeah the one in the pink sweater. Kevin says it sounds like I have a lisp…I swear I don’t! Maybe this will end up being my only video blog post, hmmm…

Dog beach and Indian pizza=The best Saturday!

This weekend was Kevin’s first weekend working (which is going to be a very regular thing from now on!) so Lola and I were on our own for the first part of Saturday. What better way to spend a warm, sunny Saturday than a day at the dog beach! We visited Crissy Fields a time or two before and I knew that this was the best place to wear Lola out. 🙂

On our way to Crissy Fields

Lola and the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance

She isn’t much of a fan of the waves but she sure loves water so was happy when we found this shallow, calm spot.

Wet dog!

Happy dog!

An exhausted pup

After Kevin’s long day at work we decided to try out a new place to eat: Zante’s Pizza! I had tried their Indian Special Pizza a few months ago at a get-together and have been raving about it ever since to Kevin, so we thought it was a great night to check it out.

Hands-down the BEST pizza ever!

Kevin’s fancy coke

The best pizza EVER! Indian special pizza included: spinach, cauliflower, eggplant, green onions, curry, tandoori chicken, lamb and prawns. Amazing!

Whoever the next lucky visitor to SF is can request to come here and we will GLADLY take you! 🙂

Lola’s best friend

Our friend Carleigh came over on Friday night for some carne asada, wine and doggie play time! The three of us went to Millikan HS together and we’ve reconnected in the past few months since we moved up to SF where Carleigh has been for a few years. Her boyfriend Scott had to work late so couldn’t join us for dinner 🙁 but Carleigh and their adorable dog Bailey joined us for a fun night!

Our appetizer: chips and salsa!

The veggie fajitas cookin’ away!

Carleigh provided dessert: cranberry tart and peanut butter delicacies!

Lola and Bailey had met a few times before at St. Mary’s dog park. But this was the first time that Lola ever had a doggie visitor to her home and she was the perfect hostess!

Gettin’ acquainted

These two played NON-STOP for at least 3 hours straight. They were such good friends! Did you notice the two glasses of wine (me and Carleigh) and the jug of milk on the counter (Kevin)? haha

Here’s a video of them in action:


The two of them would lay down for a few minutes and take a quick nap (but they had to be laying straight across from each other to make sure the other wasn’t up to no good!) and then one of them would get up and encourage the other to start playing again, so funny!

We absolutely loved having Carleigh and Bailey over to our place and we’re so happy that Bailey and Lola became such good friends!

Lola, the newest homeowner on the block

So we’ve had Lola for 9 months now and we still hadn’t gotten her a dog house. 95% of the time it’s been fine but for those gloomy rainy days, we’d have to leave her inside while we were out. For the time Kevin’s been unemployed it would work out because he was at home until 2:30pm and then I’d be home at 5pm so it was only a few hours of being left alone. But two times in particular we’ve left her outside when we thought the weather was going to be fine and it ended up raining on our poor little girl (and one of those times it was hailing!). So now that Kevin got a job, we could finally seriously look into buying a dog house!

This morning I went on Craig’s List to see what was available. When I searched “dog house” in San Francisco, two popped up and one happened to be for a medium-to-large dog, they were open to suggestions for price, and they were in the Portola District (the same neighborhood we live in!) So I e-mailed him and he got back to me right away and we set up a viewing for 3:30pm. Turns out not only do they live in the same neighborhood…they live 5 houses away!!! So I literally walked down the street with Lola to check out the dog house. Amazing!

Luckily the dog house was just the right size and when I offered them $30 they accepted! I think it was meant to be. 😉 I spent a good 15 minutes in the backyard with her trying to get her into the house and after using the techniques that I learned from our dog training at the SF SPCA, now when I say “Go to your house”, she goes in and lays down! I should be a dog trainer.

So now Lola’s living it up in her new dog house!

Don’t worry, she really fits in there. She’s just lounging in this photo!


Positive reinforcement works, folks! Rewarding her for going in and laying down, then repeating. It’s not rocket science! 🙂

The happy homeowner

I tried to lay down next to her so I could take a picture with her head sticking out but before I could snap a good photo, she knocked me over with kisses! haha
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